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Granton Library’s garden is blooming marvellous!

“If you have a library and a garden you have everything you need” Cicero

This year Granton Library got its very own garden. We asked library Team Leader Jill Marple “how did your garden grow?”

How did the idea for a garden come about?

Granton community volunteer gardeners, led by Tom Kirby, came to the library to do a few gardening sessions with the children – who loved it – so we decided to develop a small garden at the front of the library.

The children loved being outdoors (so did the staff!) and the word got out to local schools who were very interested in what we were doing.

So then we thought, what about a garden at the back of the library?

What’s the thinking behind it?

The library can often be missed from the street and we thought it would attract attention and make the area around the library more attractive.

Gardening is a great activity for children and can include lots of craft and story activities too.

The garden is a nice place for all ages to enjoy and an extension to the library.

How did it go from idea to reality?

On a gloomy January day we thought why not have a look for possible funders. We matched Awards for All Lottery criteria and that was that …they were really excellent.

Were there any challenges along the way?

Organising and scheduling our many visits and events! But on the whole everything went to plan thanks to and all the artists, authors, gardeners and library staff. Everyone who took part really enjoyed it.

As the garden developed we all got even more enthusiastic. It was great to be outdoors in the Spring and Summer.

What’s the reaction been like so far?

Everybody loves it! We are really looking forward to using the space next year for Bookbug, library arts and crafts, storytelling, picnics and much more.

Any other plans for the future?

To continue with our Garden Buddies club for the children and we are forming a ‘Friends of Granton Library‘ to pull together ideas for next year and possible funders for small projects! I’m sure we’ll get many excellent ideas from this group of all ages.